Posted on 12/17/2013 10:36:21 AM PST by Mount Athos
A private firm with a federal contract - and backed up by city police - forced motorists off Laurel Street and into a private parking lot Friday to question them about their driving habits and ask for a swab of their mouth.
"I feel this incident is a gross abuse of power on many levels," Reading resident Ricardo Nieves, one of those stopped, told City Council Monday.
He said federal and local tax dollars were being used to stop innocent people without probable cause, and allow a private company to hire uniformed police to force citizens to listen to their questions.
He said he wasn't told what the swab was for, but added, "Clearly it was for DNA."
The checkpoint was among several being carried out in Pennsylvania by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, hired by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
City Police Chief William M. Heim said the two federal agencies are trying to see what can be done about crashes and injuries, and the swabs were not to get DNA samples but to test for the presence of prescription drugs.
The checkpoint was supposed to be voluntary, but Nieves said he had to refuse several times over a five-minute period before the woman taking the survey let him go.
What irked Nieves was the presence of city police. He said they were there - including a police car with flashing lights - to intimidate motorists, and gave the checkpoint an air of authority it would not otherwise have had.
"A federal survey with local police help violates my rights," Nieves said.
Heim said city police were hired for site security only, since the survey takers were paying money for answers and for the swabs.
But he said city police did not pull motorists over, nor ask any questions, and in fact were asked to stay away from the cars.
Asked about Nieves' statement that the private firm wanted police there for intimidation, Heim responded: "People are not pressured by police presence to do something they don't want to.
"In the grand scheme of things, I think it's a pretty innocuous and minor issue."
Heim said checkpoints are fairly common - for seat belt use, drunken driving, truck safety regulations - and all result in minor inconvenience.
However, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said those checkpoints are legal only to protect public safety.
"A car driver or passenger cannot be required or pressured into providing a DNA sample and, in fact, can't be stopped at all except on suspicion of a crime or for a properly conducted sobriety checkpoint," Mary Catherine Roper, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, told the Reading Eagle Monday.
The checkpoint was part of a $7.9 million, three-year survey by the agencies, which has been conducted several times since the 1970s.
The surveys have gained more scrutiny this year because the Obama administration has been heavily criticized over revelations that U.S. spy agencies are tracking phone and Internet traffic, CNN reported in June.
Susan Watson, executive director of the Alabama chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, told CNN that Alabama's use of deputies to conduct the survey was an abuse of power.
Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer said neither he nor Managing Director Carole B. Snyder were aware of it, and he needs to understand what role police played before making any comment on it.
Council members also were upset, and said if local police are there, it appears they are operating the checkpoint.
Councilman Dennis M. Sterner was livid that government can't pick up local drug dealers without a two-year investigation, but can stop motorists at random.
"Our rights are being violated more and more every day," he said. "It's another way of government intrusion into our lives."
I’m wearing the same hat, then...
It’s worth watching the YouTube video.
I have half a mind making a video for my Citizenship in the Community merit badge class from this video here.
Keeping your cool is everything. Making a audio/video record of the stop is everything.
Keeping both hands on the steering wheel is important, or showing that one hand has the camera, while the other is in view of the LEO asking the questions.
“Am I being detained or being placed under arrest?”
Keep asking this question, calmly, until you get a yes or no answer.
If they refuse, you can say,
“Sir, respectfully, I choose to exercise my rights under the 4th amendment and continue on my way unless you indicate to me at this time that I am under arrest.”
Great stuff. Thanks. I think that would make some great Halloween steampunk gear.
No different than people who are required to have urine tests for drugs for hire by private firms but welfare deadbeats can't because it's *unconstitutional*.
The criminals in this country always get the breaks.
All in all, this event is a great misuse of law enforcement and is a violation of our civil rights.
Wouldn’t a blood draw detect the meds a driver was taking?
Assuming a driver wants to sell his or her privacy for $50, like they were supposedly offering in Alabama earlier this year and in Fort Worth a month or so ago.
Love it.
Yep, think of 'em as dry runs for a totalitarian takeover...
You just turned an otherwise crappy day around with that link. Thank you!!
And thank you, Nully, for the Ping.
That was basically it. He said this man was raised in a culture where insulting Mohammed or Islam is a capital offense, and he didn’t know any better than to attack somebody who did it here. I think the judge actually ended up fining or putting in prison the atheist for insulting Mohammed, IIRC.
The judge was a guy who had been elected because he ran as a military patriot. What he apparently didn’t tell anybody was that he converted to Islam while in the Middle East and was willing to let his empathy for Muslims direct his rulings.
Just like in Texas.
Before you ask any questions, hit the RECORD button on your phone. I have a shortcut to the voice recording on my main page, as they can claim you said this or that and then arrest you.
They cannot be trusted. Record everything.
Our AG is a worthless POS gun grabbing whore:
http://www.pa2a.org/thread-kathleen-kane-ad-fla-loophole?page=3
your papers please!
Steps to a full “police state”...
What I don’t understand - the NFL? No tailgating? And as you said - how do you enforce it?
The NFL is happy to flaunt their anti-Constitution, Anti-freedom, but give us taxpayer-funded everything and tax breaks attitude. One more reason to not watch the NFL...
See post #38, line 2.
Your advice is so good, I’ve already decided to not only follow it, but go one better!
The smell on this event gets worse, per googling the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation: George Soros has funded their work in the past!!
Per the Governors Highway Safety Association, 12 states don't allow sobriety checkpoints:
AK, WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, IA, MN, WI, MI, TX and RI.
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